British researchers say people who contract COVID-19 after they are fully vaccinated are less likely than unvaccinated people to suffer lingering symptoms from the disease.
In a study published Wednesday in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, scientists at King’s College London surveyed more than one million fully vaccinated volunteers who used a mobile app to log their symptoms, tests and vaccination status, and compared them to a control group of unvaccinated volunteers.
The study says that only a fraction of the vaccinated volunteers reported so-called “breakthrough infections,” and that those who did were 73% less likely to be hospitalized. It also said the chances the vaccinated respondents would continue to suffer from so-called “long COVID” symptoms is reduced by nearly half.
The vaccinated volunteers had received at least one dose of either the Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca two-dose vaccines between December 2020 and July 2021.
On the vaccine front, Taiwan received its first batch of 15 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine after several months of delays.
Health Minister Chen Shih-chung was on hand when a plane from Luxembourg carrying over 900,000 doses landed at Taiwan's main international airport at Taoyuan early Thursday morning. Taiwan has paid $350 million to German-based BioNTech, which developed the vaccine in cooperation with Pfizer, but has accused China of interfering in the order, a charge Beijing has denied.
The delay was resolved after Taiwan-based manufacturers Foxconn and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company joined forces with a charity created by TSMC to secure the doses from Chinese-based distributor Fosun Pharma, who then donated them to Taiwan.
The self-ruled island, which China claims as its own territory, has only been able to vaccinate around 5% of its 23.5 million people.
